<VV> Two Sunday night topics

[Sethracer@aol.com]

First topic! 
I have a car up in the air in the driveway (behind the gate, don't want to 
make my neighbors nervous! It is the way I got it. Not a runner, the car 
supposedly died in a big noise and unable to run. In the throws of moving it onto a 
trailer, off of a trailer and flat towing it home, the following problems (I 
mean opportunities) came to light. First, the car didn't want to move backwards. 
My friend and I could barely move it (110 PG) backwards at all, with the 
Emergency brake off. SO I jacked up the right side and removed about a ton of 
rust/goobers/spyders from the right rear brake and backed off the adjuster, I put 
the drum and the wheel back on and the wheel would turn. We moved the car back 
some more and finally winched it onto the trailer (forward). 
A couple of weeks later, after the DMV stuff was handled, I took the car out 
of the trailer, and flat tow it home. I moved the car about half way out of 
the trailer, rear wheel just onto the ground - And it wouldn't move at all. This 
time I was by myself. I hate to admit this, but I finally just towed/dragged 
the trailer out from under the car to get it on the ground. I jacked up the 
left rear wheel and cleaned all the junk out of that brake assembly as well, and 
backed off the adjuster. While I had it up in the air, I tried turning the 
wheel. 100 per cent of the time, it would turn to the left - forward in relation 
to the car, about 60-percent of the time it would turn about 60 degrees to 
the right and lock up. I hitched up the car and towed it home, with no problems 
- Always going forward of course. After removing the tow bar, I enlisted my 
wife and we aimed to push the car backwards to aim it up the driveway into the 
work area. It would go about 4 feet then lock up! Arrgh! I finally jacked up 
the rear of the car with my floor jack to move the car backwards. (Three people 
power) We pushed the car up the driveway with no problem, but it won't back up 
more that 1 foot before locking up. With the car up in the air, and read to 
have the powertrain-ectomy, I can't help but wonder EXACTLY what is wrong. Ring 
and Pinion teeth?, Powerglide? Torque converter? The starter crans just fine. 
I did a compression test on the 77 thousand mile motor 170-190 in all 
cylinders! All right! It does leak oil, though, and a full reseal is scheduled. A 
change to a 4-speed is also on the schedule. Okay now I am all ears! What is the 
culprit?

Topic number 2
At the Corsa SFBA (San Francisco Bay Area) installation dinner last night, 
one of the members passed around a great magazine with seventeen pages devoted 
to the Corvair. Lots of color, specs on a nice 62 Aqua Convertible. An analysis 
of the "Unsafe" book, More info on lates and the different suspensions. A 
nice coffee table magazine - However my wife had to read it to me - It was 
totally in French! Her high-school French (more than a couple of years ago) tripped 
over most of the technical terms, but it was still a sight to behold. So here 
is the Info, if you want to find a copy. The magazine is called "Retroviseur" 
(Loosely translated to Rear View, like our Silicon Valley Corsa Newsletter!) 
It is the February 2004 issue (Fevrier 2004, in French). This issue was 
purchased in France by a friend of the SFBA member, and carried home. It may or may 
not be available anywhere here (USA). Perhaps our French Corsa friends could 
obtain a few copies for us.